Member States, public officials, persons acting in an official capacity or European Union institutions have been involved or complicit in illegal deprivation of liberty of individuals, including abduction, rendition, transfer, detention or torture, either by act or omission;

(a)‘torture’ means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from that person or from a third person information or a confession, punishing that person for an act that either that person or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing that person or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted either by or at the instigation of, or with the consent or acquiescence of, a public official or other person acting in an official capacity.

‘torture’ means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from that person or from a third person information or a confession, punishing that person for an act that either that person or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing that person or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted either by or at the instigation of, or with the consent or acquiescence of, a public official or other person acting in an official capacity.

(b)‘other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment’ means any act by which significant pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is inflicted on a person, when such pain or suffering is inflicted either by or at the instigation of, or with the consent or acquiescence of, a public official or other person acting in an official capacity.

‘other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment’ means any act by which significant pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is inflicted on a person, when such pain or suffering is inflicted either by or at the instigation of, or with the consent or acquiescence of, a public official or other person acting in an official capacity.

The contracting party may for example may ask the officers to relinquish their service weapons before crossing the border; in addition, officers carrying out the surveillance must at all times be able to prove that they are acting in an official capacity, and carry the document certifying that authorisation has been granted by the contracting party. They may neither challenge nor arrest the person under surveillance.